Juan Ariel Molina-Salles, a 34-year-old illegal alien who killed Florida Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Hartwick, will spend less than 12 years behind bars. Hartwick was slain 3 years ago when Molina-Salles stuck him with a front-end loader. The illegal was charged only with fleeing the scene of an accident and not for murder. He recently pleaded guilty to avoid a longer sentence
“I understand this is not going to be a popular decision,” the judge presiding over the case said. “But I have an obligation to follow the law.”: If this was a murder, I would not agree to a 20-year cap,” Pat Siracusa, the judge, said. “This is not charged as a murder.” He acknowledged the horrific nature of the footage of the crime.
He said the videos “would make anyone cry out for retribution.” Assistant State Attorney Elizabeth Constantine said Molina-Salles fled the scene of the crime because he was worried about being deported. “He knowingly struck Deputy Hartwick,” she stated. “He left because he was selfishly concerned about himself being deported.”
No matter where the defendant came from, he knew he was running and hiding,” the Judge agreed. “He chose to hide while other people chose to stop, render aid and call 911.” “I am very sorry for leaving the scene of the accident where Deputy Hartwick died,” Molina-Salles confessed. “I was afraid, not because of being deported, but because I was afraid no one would believe me or understand it had been an accident.”
Shortly after the killing, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri spoke to Fox 13, to provide context. “This company is employing a bunch of illegals and they are all out there lying and giving us fake names, fake IDs, a lot of fake IDs out of North Carolina that really frustrated this investigation,” Gualtieri explained. ” This guy that we have in custody is here illegally and he fled, as he said, because he became afraid after he killed the deputy.”
“He clearly knew he killed the deputy because when he was hunkered down out there last night he had a cell phone on. We had some ways of tracking what he was doing with his cell phone, and he actually called his roommate in Tampa, who is another guy who is here illegally,” the sheriff stated. ” He came over and tried to pick him up. He saw all of the law enforcement activity and called him back and said, ‘I’m not getting involved in this’, and turned around and went back to Tampa.”
“You got a bunch of illegals working for this state contractor out there. They shouldn’t be here and they shouldn’t be working and they shouldn’t be out here doing this. This guy was going, I think too fast, for this thing, “Bob Gualtieri said with audible frustration. “Again, he knew he hit a deputy and as opposed to stopping, rendering aid, and accepting responsibility for what he did, we had to chase him around and sift through all this nonsense with all these people lying and providing fake IDs and we spent nine hours out there chasing this thing down.”
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“This is not victimless. We’ve got a dead deputy. We got a guy who shouldn’t be here. He shouldn’t have been driving that thing. He shouldn’t have fled. He shouldn’t have done any of this and companies are out there doing that,” he concluded. Why are they doing it? Of course, that is a rhetorical question and I’ll answer it. They’re doing it because they are making money off of it. So, are they making money now off of a dead deputy? Is it worth it? Really?”